Top Stories - October 4, 2006

New WHS announcements: http://www.wakefield.k12.ma.us/highschool/notices.html

Suffredini says our schools are safe

Left: Dr. Maynard M. Suffredini, Jr., superintendent of Wakefield Public Schools.

It’s a scenario that no parent ever wants to experience. But to their horror, three separate school shootings with deadly results have happened in the United States over the past five days.
The deadliest of the shootings occurred in rural Lancaster County, Pa. yesterday morning, when a crazed gunman stormed into a one-room Amish schoolhouse, ordering many students to leave, then boarding up the building and taking the remaining occupants hostage. Before police could rush the schoolhouse, the would-be killer lined up several girls — between the ages of 6 and 11 — bound their legs and shot eight people — including a teacher’s aide — execution style, before taking his own life.
Five girls are dead.
In the wake of yesterday’s tragedy, parents across the country were somewhat shaken about sending their little ones to class this morning. We, again, must ask ourselves, how safe are our schools?
Here in Wakefield, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Maynard M. Suffredini Jr. says the schools are safe. Among other safety procedures, all of the town’s four elementary schools are locked 24 hours a day. Visitors can only enter the buildings by ringing a doorbell. The school secretary will allow the visitor inside after viewing the guest through a security camera installed outside the front door. Wakefield Memorial High School and the Galvin Middle School both plan to install the same system once Capital Plan funding is approved.
Though he’s not at liberty to explain specific security procedures, Suffredini says each school often reviews “lockdowns” and other safety precautions.
"We’ve worked with the police and fire departments drafting these plans,” Suffredini said. “We review them annually.”

Vermonters question Mass. candidate's comment on Quebec power

MONTPELIER, Vt. --Gov. Jim Douglas' office and the company that handles bulk electric transmission for Vermont on Wednesday both downplayed comments by a Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate that Vermont could become a bigger gateway for power flowing from Quebec to the Bay State.
"The governor (Douglas) and Lieutenant Gov. Healey did discuss the importance of renewable energy and working on a regional basis to address our future energy needs," said Douglas spokesman Jason Gibbs.
But both Gibbs and Kerrick Johnson, spokesman for the Vermont Electric Power Co., said no specific plans were in the works for transmission system upgrades in Vermont to expand links between Quebec and southern New England.
The comment came a day after Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, the Republican candidate for governor in Massachusetts, said she had talked with Douglas about big new power imports from Canada through Vermont.
"We have a transmission line directly from Quebec into Massachusetts," Healey said in Tuesday's debate in Springfield, Mass., according to a transcript on The Boston Globe's Web site.
"I've already spoken to the governor of Vermont about strengthening that transmission line so we can have a new source, a powerful source of renewables coming directly into our state," she said.

Big Dig firms put money into Healey’s ads
While Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey has talked tough on the Big Dig, a new political ad supporting her bid for governor was bankrolled by a Republican special interest group funded by major contractors on the scandal-plagued project.
The Republican Governors Association, which is chaired by Gov. Mitt Romney, raked in $25,000 from Big Dig contractor Bechtel since 2005 and another $10,000 this year from Dig firm Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade and Douglas.
The nonprofit RGA has so far kicked in $890,000 for a new TV ad trumpeting Healey’s accomplishments on Beacon Hill as part of a nationwide campaign to support GOP candidates for governor.

(Sources: Wakefield Daily Item, Boston Globe, Boston Herald)